Following its success presenting La Bohème upstairs at the Cock Tavern in Kilburn, Opera UpClose has moved down to Islington and established itself at the King’s Head, re-christened pro tem as 'London’s Little Opera House’.

Its premises are the pub’s back room, with space for about a hundred bench seats and a very small and shallow stage. At least the eternal complaint about 'not being able to hear the words’ doesn’t apply: the acoustic is such that you can hear everything all too plainly, to the point at which climaxes became so loud that I had to put my fingers into my ears.

Production budgets are clearly minuscule, with makeshift scenery, costumes and lighting, and casts made up largely of postgraduates at the very start of their professional careers. For them, Opera UpClose represents a valuable opportunity to have a bash at some mainstream repertory, albeit in less than ideal circumstances.

Two productions are currently alternating. Rossini’s Cinderella, directed by Emma Rivlin, has been given a modern setting and a slick translation by Tony Britten stuffed with references to Waitrose, Ann Summers and Kate Middleton, all of which duly milked some cheap laughs. The trick of moving the party scene into the main pub, borrowed from Opera UpClose’s Bohème, went down a storm too. Sylvie Bedouelle sang the title-role with sweet sincerity, and Tom Bullard and Christopher Diffey did a spirited, personable double act as Dandini and Ramiro. The piano accompaniment was atrocious.

Slightly more daring theatrically was Adam Spreadbury-Maher’s adaptation of Butterfly, in which Cio-Cio San becomes a Thai ladyboy (Trouble is explained as an orphan boy adopted from a dead sister) and Pinkerton an American airline pilot and sex tourist. Although Laura Casey scarcely looked like any sort of child bride - she’s a buxom Australian lass, and dressing her in tight hotpants and sexy lingerie did not enhance the impression of adorable innocence - she sang Butterfly’s music sturdily. An ensemble of piano, clarinet and viola allowed some vestigial flavour of Puccini’s orchestral colouring to emerge.

I salute Opera UpClose’s spirit and initiative, and wish it well. I am sure that if money was more plentiful, standards would be higher. But brutally I have to say that performances pitched at the current level of crudity and compromise are unlikely to give anyone except complete opera virgins much pleasure or satisfaction.